1. |
The Bramble Song
01:37
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Wading through thorn
Her dress will get torn
She's gone a picking the morn
Stained cloth and skin
Yet again and again
She plunges her pale hands in
For the treasure that's bled
From the soil of the dead
Only nettles to share such a bed
And she who's seduced
By dark, swollen drupes
sin on her lips, devil's fruit
The briar will always win
Old Michaelmas did her in
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2. |
Born On The Other Side
03:58
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Here is a tale of riches to rags
A bright pebbled shore and a failure to adapt
Look for a prince in that shimmering green
All that emerges is the carcass of a sheep
The rocks have grown sharper and it's started to rain
That bright pebbled shore is now so far away
Three little mountains appear in your way
You'll never see that pebbled shore again
Your gathered gold is now glass and amber
Slow-burning effigies of former glamour
Stop motion monuments pop up and pass
Crumbling sentries of what you once had
If birds evolved from dinosaurs
To cross the great divide
These midges were once fairy folk
Built to bless and bite
It could be ancient chemicals
It could be in your mind
It could be luck abandoned us
You had to be born on the other side
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3. |
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Why do we all have to pretend
That we know how things are going to end
Why do we fall for the idea that what's gone before
Will now happen again
Is it just that it's hard to accept
Uncertainty's all that you get
After the fact then we rationalise
Forcing the story to fit
Black Swans and Dragon Kings
Laid waste to all your deliberating
Abandon your plans and ...
If fortune is female then accept
Thrashing her will have no effect
See that she feels her own mind and ideas
Let her guide you beyond the world you dreamt
You can rant and rave
All you want
You can stub your toe on the heel of god
You're just a mad white dog
Trapped in a pond
And you’re no match for the ...
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4. |
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Actually, it's not so much about dragons as forests
Dense growth, blue flowers, dimly glittering things
Moss-covered ruins, candle-lit rooms in crumbling houses
Veils of fog and uncertainty
Eroticism and decay
Clouds of mystery and magic
A hint of witchcraft
A solitary lantern in the dark, illuminating leaves or snow
Shadow-selves, eyes in unexpected places
Black twigs and silver droplets and spiders' webs glistening
The crow guardians of the vortex
Harps, unevenly pitched flutes
Ancient choirs phasing against each other
My dog is a mythical beast, flashing white between the trees
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5. |
The Selkie Of Wardie Bay
05:17
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These creatures are everywhere
These are their tell-tale signs
A picture of Orkney, a stuffed seal toy
a smooth, mottled stone by the bedside
I met a selkie one winter's day
What happened next, you can guess
Our love was like the grey-blue sky
Not the worst thing nor the best
We live by the sea
Cos it's where we feel most at home
We yearn for the water
Though we know it is too cold
Unlike you, I cannot shed
So I'm left with this damaged skin
I could never have your child
For it would have scales, or flippers for limbs
And so he slipped away
disappeared into the waves
Now I must adapt to these landlocked knees
Seek other forms of release
We're part of the city
Though we would rather swim
We see the future
But we cannot change things
If I can't go to the sea
The water must come to me
(‘til there are fish
Swimming in the streets)
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6. |
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We two found this
On a walk away from the shore
A painted cat with words taped to it
‘Some of the beasts and birds we saw’
We two found this
On a sibylline street in the city
A cold, confused and dirty dragon
A lonely, homeless mystery
Two girls found this:
On an old, abandoned road
Potholes of doubt, with hidden depths
And a crow that's privately owned
You and I found this
In a moment, a pause for thought
A faulty rhyme of two straight lines
One pushes back, the other forth
I saw a swordfish on Seafield Beach
They're not often found in the Forth
All that was left was the skull and yet
It called out
One day you will grow into yourself
And then you will blossom for all to see
And no one will take your for any less
Than you were meant to be
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7. |
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8. |
Happily Ever After
04:11
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A forest conceals a castle
a place beyond conventional history
Prescribed wisdom
Received morality
A place beyond science – physics, chemistry
You might not notice
The exact point you transition from this world to that
And in this castle lives a beast
Whose power lies in absence
The less we see, the stronger he grows
This isn't a story of a medieval age
It's early modern
Industry and imperialism glimmer in its eyes
A hint of individualism, freedom
Boundaries disintegrating but bodies still encrusted
With baroque, convoluted carvings
And the swirling curvature of Catholicism and counter-reformation
Perhaps to convince themselves
That people could be animals
They had to argue
That a beast could be a man.
No mindless minotaur
But a creature burdened with lust, regret
Rage, repentance, despair
She was a merchant's daughter
Brimming with New World wealth
And the possibility that a woman
Might claim her own destiny
Write her own chapter
Her punishment: imprisonment
A lifetime of household management
She may know the world now
Only through words
The library of babel at her disposal
They make a terrible couple
And by terrible, I mean "terrifying"
He finds that beauty is more of a fortress
Than rough hands could ever build
Shackled and shorn,
He runs his tongue over the gap
Where his fangs used to throb
He is haunted by his phantom claws
They make a terrible couple
But together they're magnificent
Manicures and dirty paws
A perfect congregation of flaws
Are they still there, in that castle
On that accidentally uncharted hill
Concealed by larch and pine,
Living out their age-old incompatibility
In bliss, or ignorance, or grinding boredom
Happily ever after?
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9. |
She Knows
03:31
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Violette
Was a tragic child
In her 12th arrondissement apartment
With a monster for a father
Til she poisoned him
And went shopping after
Madeleine
Was a Glasgow belle
Til she took herself a lover
Who threatened to blow her cover
But arsenic’s cheap
And will mix with cocoa powder
She knows she’s going to do it
Lizzie B
Was a god-fearing girl
Whose dad was incredibly stringent
Maybe he killed all her pigeons
But did she see red?
Take her hatchet to a head?
Ottilie
Married several times
Each of her husbands died
On a day that she had foreseen
As the squat priestess
Of a bluebeard clique
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10. |
The Witch Bitch
04:57
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There once was a lad who sailed the seven seas
And played on a lute so rare
He played for kings in far countries
He played with grace and care
One day he thought it’s time I settled down
I’ve had enough of the road
So he turned his steed back across the seven seas
And set his course for home
On a village green he met a charming maid
And he took her snow-white hand
He said you’ll be my one and only girl
And I will be your man
He was welcomed home by his family and friends
And presented his sweet young bride
They looked askance at this strange exotic bird
And drew him to one side
She's a witch, she's a witch
Can't you see, she's a witch
And I know you've got needs but not this
She's a witch, she's a witch
And we'll bet she's a bitch
She's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch
He decided not to listen to their fears
And brought her to home and hearth
And thought all well until one night
he woke up in the dark
A pale, eery light was coming from the door
And called him down the stairs
And there on the hearth he saw his sweet young wife
In the form of a blood-soaked bear
She's a witch, she's a witch
Did I dream, did she switch
Was that sweet, pretty girl just a trick
She's a witch, she's a witch
All the curtains will twitch
She's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch
He thought if I give her a child maybe then she’ll
Cease these nightly spells
But the seed he planted grew into a snake
And slithered down the well
He thought if I chain her to the stove
Perhaps she’ll just bake bread
But she melted the chains with the fire from her eyes
And baked his lute instead
He told her to cease her sorceress’s ways
He bade her stop or else
And the next day he found her naked on the floor
Making love with the devil himself
She's a witch, what a bitch
I've been duped, I've been stitched
What the fuck, she's a witch, she's a witch
She's a witch, she's a witch
From her tail to her tits
She's a witch, what a bitch, she's a witch
He realised he could take no more
So he packed his bags and ran
He found himself a non-magical girl
And became a family man
But sometimes in the dead of night
He looks out from his window
And from the trees that surrounded his old house
Comes an opalescent glow
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11. |
Frequencies To Victory
04:40
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Caught between a lens and a thought
Hedy Lamarr treads the boards
Eyes to flesh, not to mind
Left her name and world behind
Often seen but seldom heard
Go sell war bonds, little bird
She dreamed of voiceless messages
Of hidden thoughts without an end
Of frequencies to victory
Her true flame gleamed in chemistry
Inventing with musician friends
Her further depths were undefended
The papers gloried her decline
She hid her famous face inside
The refuge of a telephone line
Calculate the weight of what was lost
For pride and insecurity at all cost
Her ecstasy of glamour fades away
While Einstein wore the same shirt every day
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12. |
Dream House
06:08
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In his bed, Donny’s off to sleep
But here I am, trying to steal his dreams
And pull the duvet off
(With a papier mâché fox)
In the next
Paul drifts in a doze
But there’s a sobbing
From a disembodied soul
Is it the cat?
(She’s so ethereal)
She gave birth
The litter didn’t work
Some were malformed
One was viable if small
And a green frog
(That was thrown onto the lawn)
In the garden
Rose sits in the sun
With a wood chip
Below her belly button
It’s serrated
(They can trace her)
On the roadside
Sally’s in the car which her ex is driving
His lover in the back
She tried to throw them out
But instead she crashed the car into the house
She had such little control
Such little control
In the library
Wendy should be writing
Her French story
But the athlete’s keep disrupting
With their lipstick
(And their sparkling cocaine)
In the lift
Jessie is restoring an old painting
But ketchup keeps on dripping
From the kitchen
Where the city planners have their meeting
Is it the end of the world?
We have such little control
And the house sits
On a yacht that is the size of several blocks
With Christmas trees and horse drawn carriages
(Let’s get you to the launch)
Up above
Tasha’s giant plane is in the sky
With no windows on the sides
Down below
Are pretty alpine buildings in the snow
And the whole thing is a knock off game
From a 90s film
In a basement
We have such little control
Such little control
Annie dreams
About the sea
And whatever guy
she’s lying next to
Annie is serene
And sleeps so peacefully
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13. |
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14. |
Ragnar
02:35
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My name is Ragnar
I'm the baddest beast of all
I come galloping from nowhere
And I'll always crash the ball
The other brutes they fear me
Cos I don't take prisoners
But I can be a gent
If you just show me the respect that I deserve
Nobody so far
Has bested my saga
I'll eat up the prime of your life
You won't know what hit you
Don't say I bit you
I just pinned you down until you realised
Another palace plundered
Another virtue burned
Your dignity in particles
Your carriage overturned
A symphony in spandex
Glitter in my eyes
Bruises under makeup
And another world subdued beneath my thighs
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15. |
Time Of The Bindweed
04:28
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The evenings are still now
The bluebells are clear
I take a deep breath
It smells like the shore
It tastes like your tears
I feel like a child
Feel that I'm free
Open and soft
What's happening to me
The world has gone quiet
Like everyone’s died
So watch what you wish for
Watch what's released
When you sever the ties
That hold you to life
All that energy unleashed
Let them down sweetly
When you break it off
Try not to seem
Like you don’t give a fuck
Try not to smile
When you hear that knell
But sometimes
I wonder
Does this make me slightly mad
Am I the villain queen
Colder than ice cream
Am I unredeemably bad
All this silence
All this wildness
All this childhood fantasy
Why am I like this
Am I the ice queen
All hail me
Just picture
The absence
And the empty, city streets
A wondrous un-winding
Time of the bindweed
And the end of history
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Storm the Palace Edinburgh, UK
Radge folk pop from Edinburgh
"Taking their cues from modern
classical, left field folk, and stubborn indie songcraft, Storm The Palace vault over genre barriers without looking back."
Clash Music
We also have a bloody excellent remix album: acrerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/snow-stars-and-public-transport-the-remixes
Illustration by Faith Eliott
Photo by Lucía Balsa-Prados
... more
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